The present invention, in some embodiments thereof, relates to agriculture and, more particularly, but not exclusively, to a method and system for crop management.
Most of the consumed fresh water in the world is for irrigation, and most of the irrigation is for agriculture. Currently employed irrigation techniques include gravity fed or “flooding” techniques, center pivot irrigation, sprinklers and drip irrigation.
Even though drip irrigation provides water efficiency which is much higher than either gravity fed or center pivot techniques, there remains a tendency to overwater.
The measurement of climatic parameters which are used for evapotranspiration calculation, soil moisture and soil water potential have suggested for scheduling irrigation. Use of plants as indicators for irrigation scheduling has been suggested. However, prior attempts were hampered by the dynamic nature of plant water status and by the lack of suitable indicators, relative to established scheduling methods based on atmospheric and soil observations. Goldhamer and Fereres suggested that the maximum daily shrinkage (MDS) of tree trunks of almond trees can be used as a single parameter for irrigation scheduling [Goldhamer and Fereres, Irrig Sci (2004) 23: 11-19]. Fernandez et al., suggested that the measurements of the daily difference for maximum trunk diameter have the potential for scheduling low frequency deficit irrigation strategies in mature Arbequina olive trees with heavy fruit load [Fernandez et al., Agricultural Water Management 98 (2011) 1813-1821].